Love's Long Arm  ​

Love's long arm
drew me back
fifty years last night
to my first lover - 
a husband, father, 
Viet Nam vet 
now dead.
 
And I, wife, mother, poet
see him fresh from war
tan, blue eyed, fit -
shaken by the lunacy of battle
baffled at home's hostile reception
speaking of it all night long.
My only answer love.
 
A part of me rests with him.
I married Irish.
I married carpenter.
I married alcoholic.
I did not marry John.
​

by Contributing Poet   Cynthia M. Sheward   Copyright © 2020 
VWP 2020     First published in  VietnamWarPoetry.com 
​​

​​
                              ~


Warrior 

Without leathers, he's but a man
Irish face, tan, thick waist.
But garbed in medals, head-rag, boots,
He's Genghis, Grant, Hannibal -
thunder rolling on a Harley.

Still a warrior 40 years on
jungles long gone - no Cong to fight.
He defends in statehouse, hospital, VA
his band - most dead by 64 -
and others from more recent wars.

Cigars like old rags stain his hands.
He smells of man:   smoke, sweat and musk.
Sleeps poorly, dreams of violence each dusk.
The price of war - eternal vigilance
perpetual keeping score. 


by Contributing Poet   Cynthia M. Sheward   Copyright © 2015 
VWP 2015     First published in  VietnamWarPoetry.com 

​

Pedicure 

Morning in the nail shop,
two Vietnamese women and I
hear a man's voice drawl

          "I want a pedicure, that's all."

Men don't enter here, this world
of polish, lotion - free of fear.
Perhaps we misheard – he repeats it slow

           "A pedicure, please, nothing more."

We avoid each other's eyes
as he climbs the chair
to perch above the foot bath
a green beret on his unkempt hair.


          Is it memory or mercy this veteran seeks or
          simply gentle hands on tired feet? 


by Contributing Poet   Cynthia M. Sheward   Copyright © 2015 
VWP 2015     First published in  VietnamWarPoetry.com 

​Bio:   Cynthia M. Sheward  is a writer living in Jupiter, Florida,  having written poetry since childhood.
Born in Massachusetts, she spent much of her young life in New Jersey.
She received a BA in English from Arcadia University, which she applied in Vermont in the 70's
teaching junior-senior high school.
In the 80s, she & her husband built their own house
with their own hands in the mountains of North Carolina.
In the 90s, she returned to NJ where she worked for a Fortune 500 corporation until her retirement.
She has written for newspapers, magazines and newsletters. 
Her work has been published in Friends Journal, Evening Street Review, Poets of the Palm Beaches' Anthologies, 
Evening Street, The Bennington Banner, Fiber Arts Magazine, The Mountain Times, Surface Design 
and other print media, as well as on VietnamWarPoetry.com.  
CynthiaSheward.com